About us

was founded in 2005 in Moscow. It is the realization of a unique project in the field of the humanities and education in Russia. The ISA is a research institute financed completely from private sources in Russia and having a double strategy: to pursue scholarly studies advancing a new original anthropological direction, and at the same time to develop a wide range of pedagogical activity aimed at introducing students, postgraduates and university teachers to ideas and problems in this new direction, drawing them into research work and gradually building up a highly professional and productive center to disseminate the new anthropological thinking.

To this end the ISA cooperates closely with one of the most celebrated, elite Russian universities, the State University - Higher School of Economics (HSE). The ISA and the HSE have established jointly the Center of Synergetic Anthropology (CSA), which is a structural unit within the HSE and engages in all forms of pedagogical work in the HSE.

WHAT IS “SYNERGETIC ANTROPOLOGY”?
Synergetic anthropology is a new inter-disciplinary approach to the study of the phenomenon of Man that was propounded in works of the well-known Russian philosopher Sergey Horujy in the 1990s. The principles of this approach derive from the experience of world spiritual traditions, first and foremost, from the Eastern-Orthodox ascetic school, Hesychasm: it was in the interpretation of Hesychast practice in medieval Byzantium that produced the theological concept of synergy, a concept that means basically the harmony and collaboration of two energies of a different nature, the Divine (uncreated) and the human (created). The Hesychast experience has been thoroughly analyzed by Professor Horujy using all sophisticated modern methods and found to be very valuable today: it is a kind of a long-forgotten anthropological resource that might be helpful in solving many acute problems of the modern world.
Synergetic anthropology extracts the rich heuristic, philosophical, and psychological potential of the ancient schools of spiritual practice, generalizes the conceptual content of these schools and compares it with the concepts of classical European anthropology. As a result, it is able to formulate a new approach to the phenomenon of Man and a new comprehensive anthropological model. This model is not based on abstract metaphysical notions, but instead it studies manifestations, practices and strategies of a human person and always relates to a phenomenological base.

ACTIVITY OF ISA
The Institute of Synergetic Anthropology has the following principal research spheres:
- elaboration of the foundations, principles, and application of synergetic anthropology;
- anthropology of spiritual practices, schools and traditions and its influence on East Christian and Russian civilization and culture;
- Hesychasm of the most recent and topical trends and phenomena in the anthropological sphere: virtual anthropology, anthropology of actual art, extreme and psychedelic practices, practices of transgression and terrorism, etc.
- anthropological factors and anthropological methods in problems of management, administration and planning
- approaches to the global long-term problem of converting the whole sphere of the humanities into an anthropologically-based epistheme.

The research and educational goals of the Institute o Synergetic Anthropology are pursued through the following basic forms of activity:
- the State University - Higher School of Economics of original lecture courses, such as “The History of Anthropological Conceptions”, “Extreme Anthropological Strategies”, “The Crisis of European Anthropology, and Ways of Resolving It”, “The Foundations of the Eastern-Orthodox and Russian Spiritual Tradition” etc.;
- supervision of diploma, magisterial and dissertation works in the philosophical, psychological and other departments of the Higher School of Economics;
- running the open scientific seminar of the Institute, “Phenomenon of Man in its Evolution and Dynamics”;
- running the Institute’s site and developing variegated Internet forms of academic contacts and pedagogical activity;
- all kinds of international cooperation within the subject area of the Institute, such as participation in international projects and exchange programs, organization of international meetings, summer schools for students, etc.

Now in the process of drawing up plans and programs, the Institute of Synergetic Anthropology has pleasure in inviting the collaboration of academic organizations and research centers, as well as wide circles of interested professionals.